Adam Smith

(1723-1790)

The son of a customs officer, Adam Smith was born at Kirkaldy, Scotland where he attended school before study at Glasgow University and Balliol College Oxford. In 1748 Smith lectured in Edinburgh on rhetoric and belles lettres; in 1751 he was professor of logic at Glasgow, and the following year professor of moral philosophy. In 1763 he resigned his position to travel on the Continent as tutor to the Duke of Buccleugh. After three years abroad he returned to compose his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776.